Friday, February 4, 2011

So called "doctor"Dr. Phil continues to give bad advice to millions of families across the nation when it comes to the subject of sexual orientation and gender identity. His current advice column suggests how to "fix" a gender variant child and another part of his website paints LGBT marriage as "extreme".

Whether it's giving a platform to transphobia, bi-phobia or anti-gay voices there seems to be a fairly consistent message that paints our community in a damaging and inaccurate way.

Dr. Phil has been most inaccurate and down right offensive when it comes to the transgender and gender variant community. His current online advice column called "My 5 year old son prefers girls clothes and toys" encourages a mother to modify her child's behavior.

"Direct your son in an unconfusing way. Don't buy him Barbie dolls or girl's clothes. You don't want to do things that seem to support the confusion at this stage of the game ... Take the girl things away, and buy him boy toys. Support him in what he's doing, but not in the girl things." (Dr. Phil)

Dr. Phil operates under the premise that gender variance is abnormal and that the child must be confused when it is really the adults in this situation who are confused because they are faced head on with their own internal misconceptions of gender identity/expression.

Dr. Phil also has a section of his website called "Extreme Marriages" where he talks about marriages involving LGBT individuals. Scary right? If he wants to convey unusual or challenging circumstances there are different words that can be used to express that.

There have been changes in recent months that indicate that perhaps he is softening his heart and standing with the LGBT community. He has spoken out against gay bullying and admits that being gay is not a choice. We must continue to pressure him to accept our transgender brethren and eliminate all forms of queerphobia.

Send your comments to Dr. Phil demanding he stop his anti-LGBT commentary. Demand he pull these and other offensive columns and segments.

14 comments:

Heather
said...

I checked out the 'extreme marriage' page. To me, it seems that he is hardly speaking specifically to LGBT marriages and more to the issues surrounding 1- a marriage where one partner in a couple is gay and the other is not; 2-a marriage where one partner transitioned and the family is confused; and 3- a marriage where there is a significant age difference.

These are pretty extreme marriages. They're tumultuous, confusing, and full of uncertainty above and beyond what couples see every day. Now if he chose some average, typical, run-of-the-mill lesbian or gay couples that got married and called it 'extreme', I'd certainly be pissed, but it doesn't seem to be whats happening on this particular issue.

I am writing a letter about the transgender portion. I'm not so worried about the same-sex marriage stuff as it's not such a clear cut battle, and it's easier to pick clear cut battles right now. There are plenty of 'em, that's for sure!!

Yeah, because children playing with things not aimed at their gender is going to destroy the world.

Tell me Doctor Phil, what happens if your kids still turn out trans/gay? Is that because of the 20 minutes they had playing with their sister's barbie or their brother's Action Man? Also, have you noticed that most boys and most girls naturally gravitate toward dolls and boys toward trucks at an early age? Is that because even at an early age they can understand advertising?

Get fucking real Doctor Phil, if your child is that way the most you can do is make them so scared of themselves they turn out like Tedd Haggard.

I will probably send him a certified letter telling him what I think of his attitude towards non-gender conforming children. I don't like how much personal information his comments form requires me to share... there is no reason for him to know my birthday or street address.

In any case, I recently saw a 20/20 segment on transgender children where one of the children became suicidal in part because her parents' pediatrician gave the same idiotic advice that Dr. Phil gave, and I am going to be sure to mention how irresponsible it is for him to give such advice.

I take these things quite personally, as my best friend nearly committed suicide because of homophobia and transphobia.